Winter Classic Foes All But Official

2012 Winter Classic temporary logo / NHL.comThe 2012 NHL Winter Classic will take place not on New Year's Day but the day after, when the Philadelphia Flyers host the New York Rangers at Citizens Bank Park.

The New York Times says this information has been confirmed by a league official not authorized to speak publicly on the decision.

Technically, it's still speculative at this point, but it will be official as soon as the NHL releases next season's schedule. And that's expected as early as tomorrow.

This graphic to the right here is the first temporary logo being used to promote the 5th annual outdoor game. The final version of the 2011 Winter Classic logo was unveiled on the same day as the schedule release, so perhaps we could see it Thursday as well.

The Flyers-Rangers game will take place on Jan. 2, 2012, due to the fact that Jan. 1 falls on a Sunday and the NFL season will still be underway. And the NHL doesn't need that kind of competition.

I know most of us, Flyers fans excluded, aren't thrilled with seeing a Pennsylvania team involved in this event for the fourth time in five years. This pattern seems to be repeating past WC opponents to allow them to host a game of their own. If it continues, we could see Detroit hosting in 2013. Who would you like to see them play? The Avalanche? Maybe the Blues or Stars? Think of the throwback jersey possibilities.

Since I can't leave this post without something interesting to look at, here's a concept designed by DC Visual Arts. How about these for Winter Classic uniforms? Even NESN was sort of fooled.

Winter Classic 2012 concept / DC Visual Arts

A Look Back at the Infamous Slug

Taking a quick break from the somewhat fun but tedious work of creating new Jersey Galleries to keep the blog fresh. (By the way, Montreal is up next.)

Today marks the start of a new era for the Buffalo Sabres as a new owner takes the reigns. So you might wonder why I'm using the old logo in this post.

Charlie from Sabres Not Slugs directed me to a discussion last week on the SportsLogos.net forums regarding the genesis of the 2006 uniform and logo. The team's creative services director, Frank Cravotta, posted some early sketches to his online portfolio — which were later removed.

As luck would have it, that doesn't mean they're gone from the Internet at all.

Early sketches of 2006 Sabres logo / Frank CravottaVery cool to see the evolution of a mark that was so despised — and to see it from its earliest stages when it both looked like a bison and incorporated the swords for which the club is named. But the question remains, why were they removed at all? Usually that signals an artist claiming work not his own.

Well, that's not exactly the case here, as explained by Kristopher Bazen, a member of the team involved in the rebranding efforts. He wrote about the process and the harsh condemnations the logo received. 

I have several rounds of work where you can see how the "Buffaslug" took shape, so when I was given a heads up ... and saw the work online, I felt the need to speak up. I spoke to Mr. Cravotta and stated how the postings of some images could be misleading, due to the fact that the re-brand was a collaborative effort, and I thank him for removing those images in such a timely manner.

It's funny, I never really thought I'd be speaking on behalf of this project, especially since they've all but abandoned the mark, but since I'm on the subject, I guess I'll let it rip! The thing that frustrates me the most is a lot of people have no idea of the amount of work that goes into these projects, yet fire off at the mouth (or keyboard) like they are seasoned veterans at this stuff. ...

The truth of the matter is there was months of work that came from our team before this logo was decided upon. It's common for designers to work up a ton of sketches and options to please a client, but when the client has their own idea of how things should look.

Honestly, I'm thankful because I've grown thick skin by reading people's bashings and critiques. I don't believe I'm a bad designer, despite people calling for me (or should I say, "the designer") to be castrated, among other things. Does anyone remember www.fixthelogo.com, an online petition to have the Sabres logo scrapped immediately after the unveiling? I sure as hell do! That sucked because I was a young designer just trying to do my job and service a client, and happy for the opportunity to be able to accomplish a childhood dream.

In the end, I've learned to chalk it up as a learning experience and move on. I am happy to report that since that catastrophe, I've worked on other sports identities and luckily, response has been rather positive. I won't go into detail on that stuff, but I just figured I'd clear the air on that. ... It's all good!

Bazen has it right. As I've learned, you can never please everyone, so you just have to accept that people will shoot their mouths off even over things they know nothing about. But almost everyone is guilty of that at some point, myself included.

So with all the bad-mouthing this logo received during its short tenure, especially on websites like Icethetics, I felt it only fair to present the other side of the story. Consider it presented.

We seem to be a little concept-heavy these days, but I think most of us enjoy seeing the "what-might-have-beens." So continuing on that note, Cravotta had also posted a few of the early designs of the new third jersey the Sabres launched this year. It was also removed.

Early sketches of the 2010 Sabres third jersey / Frank Cravotta

Again, it's fun to see the options that were considered. Personally, I think my favorite of the four is the "Force Uniform" as it incorporates more gold. But they're all very cool. And I like that Cravotta included a picture of the number stitching that was the inspiration for the final design.

Lastly, since this seems to be a tale of two artists, I'll finish with the other one. Bazen's portfolio features a lot of sports branding and identity work, including other NHL teams. Here's a little preview.

NHL identity concepts / Kristopher Bazen

If you want to see more, check out his website.

If the Wild Weren't the Wild...

If there's one thing apart from new uniforms and logos that gets Icethetics readers excited, it's what was left on the table. We love concept art, especially when it's in the form of professional designs once considered by NHL teams. We've actually had a chance to see a lot of that recently with the Lightning, Kings, Blue Jackets, Ducks, Panthers, and even the Coyotes way back in 2008.

Now the team we know today as the Minnesota Wild has revealed what might've been in a new image gallery posted on their website.

Did you know that among the names considered early on were the Blue Ox, Freeze, Northern Lights, White Bears and Voyageurs? You may have. Those names have been floating around for a while, so now as they celebrate their 10th anniversary season, the Wild have hooked up with Minneapolis creative firm called The Shinebox to give us a visual representation of how the club might have otherwise looked.

Note: The following artwork doesn't truly fit in with the other teams discussed at the beginning of this post. Those were actual concepts the team considered once they had their name selected. In this case, the Wild turned to SME Branding to create their bear head logo only after a name was settled on.

Minnesota Blue Ox / The Shinebox

Minnesota Northern Lights / The Shinebox

Minnesota Voyageurs / The Shinebox

Minnesota Freeze / The Shinebox

Minnesota White Bears / The Shinebox

All rather interesting concepts, but none beats the Wild. And just like the logo, even the name Minnesota Wild is one of the best in the NHL. (Second only to, say... the Tampa Bay Lightning?) It's kind of interesting to see some personality added to the names that were considered for the team.

The Wild name was revealed to the public on Jan. 22, 1998 and the logo still in use today was unveiled Nov. 18, 1999. I highly recommend reading the article on the Wild's website as it talks a bit about the process of choosing the name and the trepidation the higher-ups felt upon its unveiling.

Inside the Lightning's New Identity

Just when you thought there was nothing more we could say about the recent rebrand of the Tampa Bay Lightning, we get an embarrassment of riches from the New York Times.

Times writer Jeff Z. Klein got the inside scoop on the Bolts' new look straight from the source, Ed O'Hara, the chief creative officer of SME Branding. SME is the creative force behind the branding of many NHL teams. And while reading this article, I was surprised to discover that, for as much work as they do, they only employ 15 people.

The article delves into details, including why an oval was used instead of a circle and how TV tests factor into the decision-making process. Even if you don't care for the Lightning's new identity, it's still worth a read just for the insight into how it all works.

Along with the article, the Times produced a video littered with some of SME Branding's conceptual work that ultimately led to the final design. I recommend watching the video, but here's some of what's in it.

Conceptual work for Lightning identity by SME Branding / New York Times

The whole process took six months and yielded a lot of interesting work. So what do you guys think? Are any of the early designs better than the final product?

Professional Concepts Revealed

It's a rare but always welcome treat when we get a peek at the hidden process of branding NHL teams. For whatever reason, we all have a unique interest in this aspect of marketing, and naturally, we usually only see what they want us to. Every once in a while, though, we do get a look behind the curtain.

Kings logo evolution / The Royal HalfThis morning, Los Angeles Kings fan blog The Royal Half posted some required reading for any Icethetics regular.

Chris Kontos interviewed Dan Simon, the creative director behind one of the most memorable third jerseys in NHL history. He had a lot of fascinating revelations about the process, including why he wanted to distance himself from the project.

Other cool tidbits: Why the beard was never meant to be purple. Why the sweater featured horrible gradients. Plus, see some video from the alternate jersey's debut, 15 years ago today — against the even more memorable Mighty Ducks third.

Anyway, it's a very fun read and I highly recommend it. It also provides the perfect opportunity to post some items I've been hanging on to for a little while.

Original Blue Jackets logo / Ken LohThe designer of the above Kings logo, Ken Loh, was also the mind behind the Columbus Blue Jackets original insect logo.

Mercifully, this logo was replaced by Loh's secondary mark in time for the uniforms to be designed. The little bug head, however, still took a place on the shoulders.

And for what it's worth, I always liked the electric green because it made the team stand out. Guess it was just too revolutionary to survive. But if you think you've seen it all, prepare yourself for this.

Blue Jackets mascot / Ken LohAccording to Loh's portfolio, this was going to be the full-body version of the bug — not that we ever needed to see that. And let me be clear here. Ken Loh is obviously a talented artist. I just don't think an electric green insect necessarily has a place in the National Hockey League.

His online portfolio also contains colorful concept logos and uniforms for the Carolina Hurricanes (rust/purple/gray) and Philadelphia Flyers (orange/teal). You might be surprised by what you see there.

And while we're on the subject of the Blue Jackets, the team took it upon themselves to show off some of the concepts considered for the new third jersey, launched in November.

Alternate logo concepts / Blue JacketsThis video on the club's website explains what was involved in designing the new sweater. But most notably, it gives us a glimpse at some of the initial logo designs that were shown to focus groups.

We're now familiar with the cannon logo they ultimately chose, but it's interesting to see some of the other options they thought about, including the crossed cannon, the simple CBJ mark, and — taken right out of the Wild/Penguins playbook — the primary mark encircled by the club's name.

It seems they had their minds made up about a circular logo pretty early on in the process. And notice that in each of this displays, there's an option without red — bringing back the steel blue from that original 2000 insect logo.

And there last thing I wanted to leave with is what terrible manner of thing could've happened to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim back in the early '90s. I think this image was originally posted at Uni Watch but later showed up in my email.

Update on Thursday · Jan 27 · 2011 | 5:23 PM PST by Chris

For those of you having trouble accessing Ken Loh's portfolio in the link I provided earlier, I'm adding a couple of images from his site to this post just so you can see his work.

First, here's what he has on display for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Flyers logo and uniform concept / Ken Loh

Whether you like it or not, there's no denying that it would not have been out of the realm of possibility in the mid-90s the way it would be today. Even with the non-traditional teal in the mix.

The other can't miss element of Loh's portfolio was designed with the Carolina Hurricanes in mind.

Hurricanes uniform concept / Ken LohAgain, he's a very talented artist but this certainly does not fit within the branding standards of the NHL. And those colors are definitely one of a kind. Instead, the Canes just look like the Devils.

It's not clear on Loh's site whether these are just concepts he toyed with or actual artwork submitted to and considered by the league and aforementioned teams.

I just have to ask Flyers fans... could you imagine your team wearing that half-teal/half-black jersey up there? Take yourself back to that era when you think about it. Remember the Kings and Ducks, and that the Lightning were wearing rain and lightning bolts down their sleeves.

What a time that was. I'm sure it'll all come back again some day.